Search Results
Journal Article
Automation at the Fed
To improve service and reduce costs, the 12 Federal Reserve Banks are consolidating their mainframe computer operations under Federal Reserve Automation Services, which operates mainframe computers at three sites.
Journal Article
Base drift and the longer run growth of M1 : experience from a decade of monetary targeting
The Federal Reserve has been announcing target ranges for the growth of M1 and other monetary aggregates since 1975. In Base Drift and the Longer Run Growth of M1: Experience from a Decade of Monetary Targeting, Alfred Broaddus and Marvin Goodfriend discuss a technical aspect of the Feds monetary targeting procedure known as base drift. Base drift refers to the Feds practice of using the actual dollar level of an aggregate in the base quarter as the base level for the target range, rather than the midpoint of the targeted range set in the preceding period. Broaddus and Goodfriend estimate the ...
Journal Article
The role of a regional bank in a system of central banks
Working Paper
The new neoclassical synthesis and the role of monetary policy
Macroeconomics is moving toward a New Neoclassical Synthesis, which like the synthesis of the 1960s melds Classical with Keynesian ideas. This paper describes the key features of the new synthesis and its implications for the role of monetary policy. We find that the New Neoclassical Synthesis rationalizes an activist monetary policy which is a simple system of inflation targets. Under this "neutral" monetary policy, real quantities evolve as suggested in the literature on real business cycles. Going beyond broad principles, we use the new synthesis to address several operational aspects of ...
Working Paper
Early development
Long-term economic development involves four fundamental processes: the exploitation of increasing returns to specialization, the transition from household to market production, knowledge and human capital accumulation, and industrialization. In this paper, we integrate these processes into a coherent framework for thinking about economic history. Pre-industrial development is driven by increasing returns to specialization made possible by a growing population. Increasing specialization eventually activates a learning technology and initiates industrial growth, which carries the economy to a ...
Conference Paper
Overcoming the zero bound on interest rate policy
The paper proposes three options for overcoming the zero bound on interest rate policy: a carry tax on money, open market operations in long bonds, and monetary transfers. A variable carry tax on electronic bank reserves could enable a central bank to target negative nominal interest rates. A carry tax could be imposed on currency to create more leeway to make interest rates negative. Quantitative policy--monetary transfers and open market purchases of long bonds--could stimulate the economy by creating liquidity broadly defined. A central bank needs more fiscal support than usual from the ...
Working Paper
A note on the neutrality of temporary monetary disturbances
In the classical macroeconomic models constructed by Lucas (1972, 1975) and Barro (1976), monetary aggregates are assumed to be generated by a logarithmic random walk. This specification implies that all monetary growth is (a) unanticipated and (b) permanent.
Journal Article
The monetary policy debate since October 1979: lessons for theory and practice
Monetary theory and policy have been revolutionized in the two decades since October 1979, when the Federal Reserve under the leadership of Paul Volcker moved to stabilize inflation and bring it down. On the side of practice, the decisive factor was the demonstration that monetary policy could acquire and maintain credibility for low inflation, and improve the stability of both inflation and output relative to potential. On the theory side, the introduction of rational expectations was decisive because it enabled models of monetary policy to incorporate forward-looking elements of aggregate ...